Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 68
Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
The Expressway juggernaut got its timing
spot-on as it rolled over, and then through, our wetland observation lookout,
taking around 48 hours to complete its demolition.
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| Dune demolition dunelake in foreground |
Last time they were down
here, they put on a big show of looking for endangered species, but that’s all
history now with the General Election having come and gone. And this is ironic because
100 metres away we photographed this critically endangered New Zealand duck
feeding in the Wharemauku.
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| Parera female -Wharemauku creek |
This is a young female parera and pure bred
(Can you identify why? See below). We have been trying to extend our
investigation in a wider net through the district in an effort to pinpoint
where these pure bred birds are flying in from. Our closest encounters have been up in the forest wetlands behind us (Tararua’s). That’s a good 40 km away; but these animals are very migratory and
can fly in from as far away as Australia and the Pacific Islands, so it’s a bit of a guessing game.
And this time of the year all these ducks
–mallard and parera- take to the air in what appears to be a social ritual as they
begin to pair off. But there doesn’t seem to be anywhere near the number of
birds around this year as usual. We’ve counted five ‘residents’ up one end of
the Wharemauku where theres usually a dozen or more. You have to get up around
dawn to find them when they are still on the creek – they generally clear out when locals begin walking their dogs along the path.
Botulism has been spreading through our
local water birds with sick birds including shags, ducks and paradise ducks, being
picked up in the middle of summer when they should be at their healthiest. They
contact this from algal bloom in local ponds that stagnate because they aren’t properly
drained. We found two young, fully grown ducks dead on the water over recent
days. All this has been of great concern and may account for the drop in
numbers; though as we have previously mentioned the bird numbers in this area
seem to have dropped dramatically since the expressway excavations began in
earnest.
Yet inanga in the Wharemauku haven't been affected so far.
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| Strange ways - spot your inanga |
This year these little fingerlings are out in squadrons. They live at
the bottom of the feeding chain with shags, heron, eels et al, all
fattening themselves up on them, along with the kotare (kingfisher) that
disappeared in spring but is now back again on its roost near Drain 7, at the
back of the airport. We were hoping for a family from this guy this year but it wasn’t to
be; though he’s busy now, scooping up the local marine inhabitants from the creek.
These inanga seem to spend a lot of their
time engaged in what looks like ‘play’. Once again the best time to see this is
around dawn on a still clear early autumn morning. Here we filmed them in
groups, standing on their tails with their mouths out of the water, apparently
gasping for air.
We are completely mystified and though you can’t see too much detail
in our clip, we thought we’d post it anyway. These tiny fish are very skittish
and as we leaned over the creek bank they scattered in alarm, but soon came
back into position once they’d got used to us.
Then finally, here are the telltale signs of parera – green speculum and brown feet. Just by way of a caution - there is a considerable degree of the usual eyewash on the internet about this bird - including from the 'experts' a result of talking too much to your laptop. Best get out there and start observing them for yourself...
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| Feet and speculum of parera |
Track we were listening to while posting this the peerless
Leadbelly – Ain't gonna study war no more – which we think should be getting a
lot more airtime now half the world looks determined to resort to arms once
again.
I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield,
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield,
Down by the riverside
Study war no more
I ain't gonna study war no more
Ain't gonna study war no more
Ain't gonna study war no more
I ain't gonna study war no more
Ain't gonna study war no more
Ain't gonna study war no more
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